The present invention is directed to routing of in-vehicle emergency calls, both manual and automatic, to both an automatic crash notification service and a public safety answering point. More specifically, this invention relates to a system and method that routes in-vehicle emergency calls to an automatic crash notification service and a public safety answering point that are both proximal to the origin of the call.
Efforts are being made, particularly in Europe, to improve in-vehicle emergency call service. Specifically, European Telecommunications Standard Institute/OCG EMTEL #9 (27.10.2004) provides for defined information to be delivered in an in-vehicle emergency call setup message. Such information includes:                Header        Time stamp        Precise location        eCall qualifier        Vehicle identification        Service provider identifier        
This information is herein referred to as the “eCall information.” The header of the eCall information indicates whether the call is placed manually, automatically or is a “Good Samaritan” call. The time stamp gives the approximate time the call is placed. The “precise location” field gives the X/Y coordinates of the vehicle, which is derived from an in-vehicle Global Positioning System (GPS). The “eCall qualifier” indicates which of the one or more vehicle sensors is or are active (e.g., front impact, side impact, etc.). “Vehicle identification” is self-explanatory. “Service provider identifier” identifies the notification service subscribed to for this vehicle (telephone number or IP address).
The object of this effort is to deliver the above-defined information to a public safety answering point (PSAP) that handles the call and thus enhance the information available to the PSAP operator. However, the in-vehicle emergency call is first routed to a public telephone operator who manually selects a PSAP or an automatic crash notification service, even if the operator cannot verbally communicate with the vehicle occupants. The operator then causes the call to be routed to the selected PSAP. The eCall information is then delivered via a separate channel to the PSAP and displayed on the PSAP operator's terminal.
Such manual operator intervention, however, slows the delivery of the call to both the PSAP and the automatic crash notification system. As is known in the art, emergency calls need to be routed as quickly as possible to the answering point or answering points in order to provide aid as quickly as possible.